EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 69 



Police Department, the Director laid the situation before the 

 Executive Committee of the Society, and asked for funds from 

 the Society's treasury with which to hire three detectives for 

 special duty in the Park on Saturdays and Sundays. The appro- 

 priation asked for was immediately granted. Three strong- 

 arm detectives, experienced in Park work, were engaged and 

 placed on duty, to prevent and punish disorderly conduct on the 

 part of persons of lawless and disorderly tendencies. These 

 officers worked all summer in close touch with Chief Forester 

 H. W. Merkel who heartily welcomed their support and 

 co-operation. 



The result entirely met the Society's expectations. In a 

 very short time it became known that disorderly persons were 

 liable to be arrested by plain-clothes men, and a thousand petty 

 offenses against good order and decency were adequately pun- 

 ished on the spot. Any man who commits an offense would 

 much rather be ejected from the Park, or even kicked, than 

 haled to court five miles away, with the certainty of a fine at 

 the end of the journey. It is my conviction that in New York 

 parks it is much better, and vastly more effective, for every 

 petty male offender to be punished by hand, on the spot, than 

 treated as an individual M'^hose person is sanctified, and cere- 

 moniously escorted to a court five miles away for the levy of a 

 small cash fine. 



In 1914, under a new administration, we hope that the Po- 

 lice situation in the Park will be greatly improved. We shall 

 ask that two carefully selected officers be permanently detailed 

 for duty in the Park, as once was done with most excellent 

 results ; and we shall ask that on Sundays in the busy season 

 those rendered last year by the Zoological Society's detectives, 

 for duty in the Park, to perform services precisely similar to 

 those rendered last year by the Zoological Society's detectives. 

 We shall ask that all officers sent to the Park be instructed to 

 regard the person of no disorderly person as necessarily sacred 

 from reasonable corporal punishment on the spot, in lieu of ar- 

 rest and a court sentence. 



ATTENDANCE. 



When a place of public entertainment and instruction is as 

 far removed from the center of population as the Zoological Park 

 is removed, its attendance may fairly be regarded as an index 

 of its popularity, or the reverse. The special effort that is re- 



